By Jesse Wilson
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – More than 925,000 Hoosiers who rely on government assistance to purchase food will receive fewer benefits starting Friday when a program enacted during the economic downturn expires.

The cuts will mean $36 less in monthly benefits for a family of four or about $11 less for a single person who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which used to be known as food stamps.

Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, said $36 “means several days’ worth of food for a struggling family.”

“Clients already have a difficult time putting enough food on their tables and paying their bills even with SNAP benefits,” she said.

The increased benefits went into effect in 2009 when Congress passed the Recovery Act, a collection of programs meant to boost the American economy. But the increase was never meant to be permanent.

SNAP is funded by the federal government but administered by the state. Officials at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration say they’ve been warning recipients about the upcoming drop in aid.

“We have been sending notifications by mail for about a month” said Marni Lemons, a spokeswoman for FSSA. “We are always prepared to receive calls from people who need assistance and any calls that come in about the reduction in SNAP aid will be well handled.”

Overall, the federal government will send about $98 million less to Indiana for SNAP through September 2014 than if the stimulus program had been extended. About 14 percent of Hoosiers will be affected.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank in Washington D.C., about 436,000 children in Indiana will be affected by the cuts. Another 164,000 Hoosiers who are elderly or disabled will be affected.

For a family of three, the cut equals about 16 meals a month, according to the center. That’s based on costs outlined in the U.S. Agriculture Department’s “Thrifty Food Plan.”

The reduced payments will average less than $1.40 per person per meal.

“The depth and breadth of the SNAP cuts that take effect in November are unprecedented,” says a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Past cuts have affected specific states or groups, but they have not affected all participants nor been as large as these cuts.”

The cuts come as a House-Senate conference committee begins work on a farm bill that could mean even more cuts for the SNAP program. Republicans in the House have proposed cutting benefits by $40 billion over 10 years.

The current reductions will affect families as follows:

• Family of 1: $11 a month.
• Family of 2: $20 a month.
• Family of 3: $29 a month.
• Family of 4: $36 a month.
• Family of 5: $43 a month.
• Family of 6: $52 a month.
• Family of 7: $57 a month.
• Family of 8: $65 a month.
• For each additional person: $8 a month.
• Households that receive minimal benefit: $1 a month.

Area food banks expect to see an increase in need once the cuts take effect.

“We hope that Hoosiers statewide will also come to the aid of our friends, neighbors, and family that will be impacted by the loss of food assistance in November by donating food, funds, or time to regional food banks or local pantries to ensure that more food is available to those in need,” said Bryant.

Jesse Wilson is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.   

By Jessica Wray
SHFWire

WASHINGTON – When astronaut Mae Jemison prepared for her launch into space, the chemist and physician had to test her flight suit – working with her personal flight suit technician to keep the special outfit in working order.

Mae Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut, explains a survey about the need for more STEM-trained job candidates. Jemison is the spokeswoman for Bayer’s Making Science Make Sense program – an initiative to get students excited and involved in STEM education. SHFWire photo by Jessica Wray

The bulky, orange suit helped protect Jemison during launch and re-entry and was maintained by Sharon McDougle, who Jemison said she depended on to be skilled in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – to keep her safe.

“My life depended on her having a great degree of STEM literacy, yet she was a high school graduate,” Jemison said.

Jemison used her flight suit technician as an example of a science career that required a high school diploma and extensive training – not a doctorate in astrophysics.

“It’s really important for us to think about things in a different way,” she said at a conference Thursday about STEM education and the workforce.

She and other experts said there is still a shortage of skilled workers for a number of STEM jobs in the United States – and that most of those jobs do not require advanced degrees.

According to the Labor Department’s O*Net database, a person graduating with a two- or four-year degree in STEM can work as a lab technician, making a median salary of $42,000 a year; a computer system analyst, earning about $80,000 a year, or a marine engineer, who can make on average $88,000 annually.

Jennifer McNelly, president of the Manufacturing Institute, describes the importance of manufacturing jobs to the nation’s economy. She said she wants to improve the industry’s image and encourage students to think about training in college for a trade job. SHFWire photo by Jessica Wray

A report released Tuesday by Bayer Material Science surveyed 150 talent recruiters from U.S. Fortune 1000 companies.

Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut and Bayer’s “Making Science Make Sense” spokeswoman, said it’s important for schools and local governments to provide students with information about STEM jobs that don’t necessarily require doctoral degrees.

Jemison has a chemical engineering degree from Stanford University and a medical degree from Cornell University. After two years in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia, she practiced medicine in California while she took graduate engineering classes. In 1987 she was selected by NASA for the astronaut program. She flew to space in the Endeavour on an eight-day mission in 1992.

Change the Equation hosted the STEM conference with Bayer.

The survey found that 67 percent of 150 talent recruiters who responded to the survey said there are more STEM jobs being created than non-STEM jobs today at U.S. Fortune 1000 companies.

Talent recruiters said in the survey that job candidates with two- and four-year STEM degrees are “as” or “more in demand” for non-STEM jobs than candidates without the science and math background.

Jennifer McNelly, president of the Manufacturing Institute, said it’s time parents, teachers and administrators change the way they view the manufacturing industry and encourage students to think about training for trade jobs.

“We need to engage in our supply chain and offer work-based learning. We need to change how we talk about the world of work and the respect for work and what it means to do and make things,” McNelly said. “I think about how we make life-saving medicine and we make jets fly. But people don’t understand that.”

Kelly Mack, executive director of Project Kaleidoscope with the Association of American Colleges and Universities, agreed with McNelly – but added that increasing the number of students who decide to study STEM majors and stick with it will only happen once many instructors change their mindsets.

“We still have professors who pride themselves on low pass rates. For many of them, that’s a sign of good teaching,” Mack said. “We need to change the mindset from weeding out talent to cultivating talent.”

A study done by the Brookings Institution breaks down the number of STEM jobs and what education they require.

The study found that 50 percent of STEM jobs – which Brookings defines as any job that requires specialized knowledge in the four areas – do not require a bachelor’s degree. STEM jobs make up 20 percent of all U.S. jobs.

Jonathan Rothwell, associate fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, worked on the “Hidden STEM Economy” study. He said that, from 1980 to 2010, there was an increase of 4.3 million STEM jobs in the U.S. for workers with some college but no bachelor’s degree and a 10 million job increase in STEM positions at the bachelor’s degree level or higher.

Reach reporter Jessica Wray at jessica.wray@shns.com or 202-326-9865. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire.